With the Supreme Court throwing out one of the worst charges levied at J6ers, it is time to revisit January 6, 2021. The infamous J6 insurrection. An act of domestic terrorism. A day that makes some clutch their pearls and swoon. Worst attack on DC since the Civil War.
Let’s be clear. On J6 illegal acts were committed. There was a riot. There was property damage. There was certainly civil disobedience. There was violence. But let’s be specific. It was a two-hour riot, with several, maybe a dozen, broken windows. There was unauthorized trespassing into the Capitol building. There was some attempt by the Capitol police to stop some people. Although the Capitol is known to be a publicly accessible place, some people knew they were trespassing.
Videos show police waving people in, standing by quietly while people walked around, and some police even looked like they were giving people tours. Plenty of videos show people taking pictures and staying within the velvet guide ropes like they were taking a tour. Those certainly were not insurrectionists or rioters by any stretch of the imagination. You couldn’t even call them intentional trespassers.
Equally odd for a riot or insurrection, little damage was done inside the Capitol despite plenty of opportunity—no gunshots, no arson, no trashed paintings. Two unarmed women, one shot at point blank range by a cop, the other beaten and trampled, were killed. Contrary to propaganda, zero police were killed on J6. Considering the thousands of times the media has lied about that, I should repeat. Zero police were killed on J6. No lie. There I go quoting Joe again.
Despite no one from the Proud Boys or the Oath Keepers bringing weapons anywhere near the Capitol, fourteen members of those groups were convicted of seditious conspiracy. In a completely insane overreach the prosecution demanded a terrorist embellishment be added to the sentences. Stewart Rhodes, leader of the Oath Keepers who never set foot in the Capitol, got eighteen years.
The J6 investigation has been the biggest manhunt in history by 100-fold. In just the first year the FBI logged over 86,000 man-hours on J6 from the DC office alone. Many more hours were spent by the 56 FBI field offices. In fact, so many hours were spent on J6 that an FBI whistleblower revealed that field agents were told to fudge their reports and say the hours were spent on other cases. In 2022 Congress allocated an extra half a billion dollars to the FBI, much of it earmarked for more J6 investigation. And the FBI is still going strong with plans to arrest another 1,000 people.
We can’t forget the DOJ. Lawyers aren’t cheap. In Merrick Garland’s own words, “countless agents, investigators, prosecutors, analysts, and others across the Justice Department have participated in one of the largest, most complex, and most resource-intensive investigations in our history.”
What of the J6 committee? The most expansive congressional investigation in history was nothing more than a salivating group of hangmen tying their knots while they gnashed their teeth. At best a kangaroo court, at worst an illicit and unconstitutional star chamber bent on grinding political opponents to dust. The J6 committee spent over 4 million taxpayer dollars trying unsuccessfully to get Trump while destroying anyone in its path. After hiring a TV producer, the committee’s attempt to make it a show trial failed miserably. Between July 2021 and January 2023, they interviewed over 1,000 people and wasted over a quarter million man-hours. Their final 845-page report (if we can even call it that) was a big snooze.
Who are these J6 insurrectionist terrorists? Are they career criminals? No. Are they enemies of America devoted to its destruction? No. Are they actual terrorists who bomb, shoot, and kill for some maniacal cause? Of course not. But that is what the current administration and their barking shills in the media would have you believe.
So who are the infamous J6ers? First of all, they are American citizens, every last one of them. People who care about our country. What used to be called good Americans. They are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, grandfathers and grandmothers. The shameful prosecutor of one 70-year-old demanded a 14-year sentence for what was truly little more than trespass, if that. A likely death sentence for someone never even arrested before. Who are those prosecutors?
One young man from Pennsylvania, Matt Perna, turned himself in immediately on finding out the FBI was looking for him. Charged with 4 crimes and facing 20 years in prison, Matt pled guilty, expecting a couple of months in jail. Delayed hearings and postponements dragged out for over a year. When he finally found out prosecutors were planning to bring more charges and ask for 6 years in prison he lost hope. He was first arrested on January 19, 2021. On Feb 25, 2022, Matt killed himself.
What exactly was his crime? He walked unarmed into the Capitol through an open door. He didn’t break, touch, or steal anything. He did not harm anyone. He stayed within the velvet ropes taking pictures. He shouted USA, USA with the group and left twenty minutes later. Was Matt Perna a terrorist? No. Was he an insurrectionist? No. He was a graduate of Penn State, never once arrested, a teacher with a good job and a young son. Like 70 million other Americans, he suspected there was wrongdoing in the 2020 election and wanted to be heard. Now he is dead. Have those prosecutors no conscience?
The government has not released all of the video evidence surrounding J6, some of which would certainly be exculpatory, but more to the point, would reveal the truth. The J6 committee failed to preserve evidence. At least 40 undercover operatives from the FBI, DHS, and Capitol police were on the ground during J6. In addition there were 10 to 20 undercover informants embedded in both the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers prior to J6. Many of the numerous FBI, DHS, and Capitol police undercovers have been shielded from testifying to hide their involvement and any culpability.
So, where does that leave us? With a thousand arrested, most over-charged, nearly all convicted and sent to prison. Another thousand are due for arrest—all while the government withholds evidence and admits there were undercover government agents seeded into the crowd, some visibly stirring people up. We have patriotic American citizens still rotting in jail without trial who sing the national anthem every night before going to sleep. Every night. Many more are in or are going to prison, everyone is overcharged, over-convicted, and over-sentenced by any reasonable standard. Most have never been arrested for anything else in their whole lives and yet they face hard time.
Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky once said, “You can judge a society by how well it treats its prisoners.” Anyone pretending J6 is justice should have to spend one week in the DC jail. Even one day. Half the members of Congress commit acts that deserve more punishment than what these people are getting, and everyone knows it.
That is not justice. That is not fair. That is not right. That is not America.
And that is the simple truth of J6 Justice.
Created, Propagated, Inflated then Mitigated and Deflated as the facts roll out over time. History will show it was Pelosi’s purposeful missteps and fraudulent patriotism that manipulated the chaos on January 6th. The more I think about it, they are not socialists, they are ignorant nuts.
So, where does that leave us, Diogenes?
The litany of crimes that you cite is representative of the paradigm, yet you offer merely lament.
We are a nation that sees 50% or more of its population desire and vote for “un-responsibility”, for un-American policy.
It might be as high as 80%.
And THEY are equally complicit.
And THEY deserve equal reckoning.
That is where we are.
The question ought be, “How do we reckon them?”
I submit that few dare hear the truth.